Region 2-1A boys: Cottondale hangs on to beat Bozeman

Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 11:35 PM.

The host Hornets broke out to a 20-point lead before surviving Bozeman’s Harrell-led rally in the second half to hang on for a 45-43 victory Tuesday in a Region 2-1A semifinal boys basketball game.

Cottondale (14-14) will travel to West Gadsden on Saturday night to play for a berth in the state Final Four.

“They’ve been pretty adamant they want us, and they’ll get us,” Hornets coach Chris Obert said of West Gadsden, noting his team won their only previous matchup by one point on Cottondale’s home floor. “We’ll see what happens. It’s a tall task, but it’s not one we’re scared of.”

Cottondale earned its place in that game by outlasting Harrell and the Bucks. The Hornets led 37-17 midway through the third quarter, but Harrell scored 10 points in a 16-0 run to pull Bozeman within 37-33 entering the final quarter.

A steal and ensuing layup by Sheldon Vann gave the Hornets a 40-33 lead with 6½ minutes to play, but Bozeman capitalized on Cottondale’s shaky free-throw shooting to take the short-lived 43-42 lead with Harrell’s layin with 2:15 remaining.

Jerodd Blount’s free throw tied the game eight seconds later, and D.J. Roulhac’s layin with 43 seconds left provided the go-ahead bucket for the Hornets.

The host Hornets broke out to a 20-point lead before surviving Bozeman’s Harrell-led rally in the second half to hang on for a 45-43 victory Tuesday in a Region 2-1A semifinal boys basketball game.

Cottondale (14-14) will travel to West Gadsden on Saturday night to play for a berth in the state Final Four.

“They’ve been pretty adamant they want us, and they’ll get us,” Hornets coach Chris Obert said of West Gadsden, noting his team won their only previous matchup by one point on Cottondale’s home floor. “We’ll see what happens. It’s a tall task, but it’s not one we’re scared of.”

Cottondale earned its place in that game by outlasting Harrell and the Bucks. The Hornets led 37-17 midway through the third quarter, but Harrell scored 10 points in a 16-0 run to pull Bozeman within 37-33 entering the final quarter.

A steal and ensuing layup by Sheldon Vann gave the Hornets a 40-33 lead with 6½ minutes to play, but Bozeman capitalized on Cottondale’s shaky free-throw shooting to take the short-lived 43-42 lead with Harrell’s layin with 2:15 remaining.

Jerodd Blount’s free throw tied the game eight seconds later, and D.J. Roulhac’s layin with 43 seconds left provided the go-ahead bucket for the Hornets.

Faced with a two-point deficit with 10 seconds remaining, the Hornets forced the ball out of Harrell’s hands at midcourt. Harrell quickly got the ball back, but he had to loft a contested 3-pointer high into the air, where it hit a beam in the ceiling as time expired.

“Their point guard is a good player, and he hit a lot of good shots,” Obert said of Harrell, who finished with 24 points and five 3-pointers, four of them from 25 feet or beyond. “If he doesn’t hit those bombs, we’re OK.

“You just have to tip your hat to him. (On the last possession) we tried trapping him off a ball screen to get the ball out of his hands. Luckily it worked.”

Harrell, a senior, looked like a player trying to bail out a sinking ship by himself in the first half. He scored all six of Bozeman’s points in the first quarter, which ended with Cottondale leading 14-6. Nearly 13 minutes of game time had passed before another teammate, Ryan Peltonen, finally scored. The Bucks trailed 27-17 at halftime.

“(Harrell) is our leader, and I’ve said it all starts with him,” said Bozeman coach Mike Memmen, whose team’s season came to an end at 19-9. “He played as hard as he could tonight.”

Roulhac and Blount led the Hornets with 11 points apiece. The tandem was at its best when playing under control and not forcing plays offensively.

“They’re scorers, and you have to give them freedom,” Obert said. “I definitely think their emotions got them a little jacked up, but they settled down more in the second half.”

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